Ladygin leads a LADA 1-2 at the Moscow Raceway

The ‘raison d’état’ prevailed in Race 2 at the Moscow Raceway that hosted TCR Russia’s penultimate event before the season’s finale in Sochi where the title fight will be decided.
Mikhail Mityaev, dominated the race, but handed victory in the last lap to his LADA Sport Rosneft teammate Kirill Ladygin; the latter, with this fourth success, moved into the second position in the standings, only 15 points behind Dmitry Bragin. The reigning champion had to fight hard to finish fourth and limit the erosion of his leadership. By finishing third, Klim Gavrilov remained the third title contender, 18 points behind the leader.
The track was damp after the morning rain and the drivers faced treacherous conditions in the initial laps. Mityaev took the best start ahead of Gavrilov, who sneaked from row 2 between the LADA cars and the poleman Grigoriy Burlutskiy. As Mityaev ran wide in T3, Gavrilov briefly took the lead but in lap 2, the LADA driver recovered the first position and pulled away. Aleksey Dudukalo had dropped after hitting the barrier following a contact at T1, while Marat Sharapov retired with a technical issue and Anvar Tutaev received a drive-through for jump-start.
Mityaev built a 10-second a solid lead and his teammate Ladygin put in a great show as he passed Pavel Kalmanovich, Ivan Lukashevich and Gavrilov to take the second place.
By lap 10, with the track still slippery, Mityaev was leading from Ladygin and Gavrilov, while Kalmanovich had passed Lukashevich after a tough fight that culminated in them making contact. Bragin followed and overtook Lukashevich for fifth on lap 11.
During the final lap, Mityaev slowed down considerably and handed victory to Ladygin a few hundredths metres before the end, while Bragin was able to steal fourth from Kalmanovich at the last turn.
The TCR Russia’s season finale will take place at Sochi Autodrom on September 6^th/7^th.

Race 2
1. Kirill Ladygin (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport), 16 laps
2. Mikhail Mityaev (LADA Sport Rosneft, LADA Vesta Sport), 0.660
3. Klim Gavrilov (VRC Team, Audi RS 3 LMS), 5.823
4. Dmitry Bragin (TAIF Motorsport, Hyundai i30 N), 14.769
5. Pavel Kalmanovich (TAIF Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 15.295

Championship points
1. Bragin 191 pts; 2. Ladygin 176; 3. Gavrilov 173.